Special feature: Alison Stacey talks to one of the last surviving WW2 Desert Rats

Birmingham soldier Robert Brighton was one of the Desert Rats - picture from 1939

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Standing in the blistering heat of the desert, the sun beat down on the hundreds of men lining the route to Tripoli in Libya.

Guarding against snipers hiding in the dunes, the troops lined the dusty road waiting for the imminent arrival of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

It was February 1943 and the British leader was visiting General Montgomery to congratulate him and his brave men on the success of the 8th Army’s campaign.

The Desert Rats’ legendary victory against German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was seen by many as the turning point in the Second World War.

Birmingham soldier Robert Brighton was one of the Rats and today, at the age of 91, is one of the few surviving heroes of that desert battle.

Speaking to the Mail ahead of Remembrance Sunday, he recalled the visit of Churchill with fondness – and regret.

“We never caught a glimpse of him,” said Bob.

“We stood for a few hours facing away from the road, then heard the motorbikes approaching. Eventually Churchill’s car drove past – but we had to face away in case of snipers in the sand.’’

Bob is one of the last Desert Rats who served with such distinction in North Africa during some of the darkest days of the war.

Serving with the Royal Army Service Corps, he worked as a tradesman ‘coach trimmer’, backing up the front line troops by providing transport, shelter, food and supplies.

Bob, a former apprentice sign writer from Sutton Coldfield, signed up to the Territorial Army at just 17 years old. Along with 30 other soldiers, the former Green Lanes School pupil was sent to London and Newark for training.

Then in mid-1941 Bob and approximately 700 comrades were sent to Cape Town, which involved a six-week boat journey from Liverpool.

“When we arrived they didn’t know what to do with us at first. It was a bit like a holiday,’’ he recalled.

“We would visit Table Mountain in the day, go swimming, and then sleep in our hammocks on the boat at night.’’

But soon the ‘holiday’ was over as the troops were sent to holding battalions in Egypt, along with thousands of other Allies.

The hard-graft then began as Bob and his colleagues worked to build the camps and assemble lorries from parts that would arrive from America in wooden crates.

“We were like a mobile garage,” said Bob. “There were mechanics, electricians, and carpenters. But we had to wait until the evening to do work on the vehicles as the metal would be so hot in the day it would burn you.

“We were given a bivouac, a tiny tent that you could barely sit up in to share with somebody else. We would dig a deep hole before putting our tent over it to give you more space and it also offered protection from flying bullets.

“For dinner we sometimes threw a Mills-bomb in the sea which would stun sacks of fish. We would just grab them and fry them up on our cookers”.

In August 1942 the Rats were put under new command when General Bernard Montgomery was appointed as Chief Commander of the Eighth Army, and the North African campaign.

“We didn’t know what he was capable of at the time,” said Bob. “But he was a good soldier and a good man.

“He was a just another General to us at first and we just tried to keep out of his way.”

Yet Bob was soon on Monty’s radar and was asked to help repair the great soldier’s boots at one time.

“I don’t know why but he always seemed to pick on me,’’ he recalled.

“We all had special desert boots and his stitching used to come undone at the back which would be quite uncomfortable. He could have just got some new ones, but he was a bit tight!”

Bob described how he and his fellow Rats would come across unexpected finds in the desert – including an abandoned German motorcycle.

“It was a BMW bike. I fixed it, and me and some lads would rag around in it in the desert,’’ he said.

But despite the camaraderie and spirit of the troops, Bob also recalled how he witnessed some truly horrific scenes.

“After battle, we would approach and collect the bodies of our own men and give them a proper burial,” he said.

In January 1945 Bob returned to Sutton Coldfield for the first time in six years after being given leave, arriving home in the freezing winter weather in nothing but his khaki drill uniform.

“It was a bit of a shock!” admitted Bob.

After victory in Africa, most of the troops fought in the Italian campaign, but Bob was moved to Kenya to recruit and train locals to the army.

Eventually in the winter of 1945, months after war had ended, he returned to Birmingham for good where he enjoyed a 44-year career with the Post Office.

He met wife Joyce in 1946 at a dance in Erdington and they went on to have two children, Darrel and Beverley.

But the skills he had learnt in the army stayed with him all his life and he will remember those who fought alongside him at Remembrance Sunday.

“I had all the skills of a carpenter and mechanic, and can still remember a bit of Kenyan,” said the old soldier.

“You just soon got back into normal life, going to work and the pub. But it is important to remember those who made a sacrifice.’’